THE COTERIE THEATRE’S TRANSITION FROM CHILDREN’S THEATRE TO MULTIGENERATIONAL THEATRE: 1991-2014 A THESIS IN Theatre History Presented to the Faculty of the University of Missouri-Kansas City in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree MASTER OF ARTS by DANIELLE M. TREBUS B.S., Saint Mary College, 1977 M.A. ED. University of Saint Mary, 2007 Kansas City, Missouri 2015 THE COTERIE THEATRE’S TRANSITION FROM CHILDREN’S THEATRE TO MULTIGENERATIONAL THEATRE: 1991-2014 Danielle M. Trebus, Candidate for the Master of Arts Degree University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2015 ABSTRACT The programming of The Coterie Theatre of Kansas City, Missouri, under Artistic Director Jeff Church, was studied from September 1990 to August 2014. The works researched included world, commissioned and American premieres of plays for young audiences at the theatre. These plays were chosen in proof of the hypothesis that Jeff Church’s programming played a primary role in the theatre’s transition from a children’s theatre to a theatre for young audiences and then to a multigenerational theatre. The findings strongly suggest that not only is the hypothesis correct but Church’s programming contributed to The Coterie Theatre’s rise to national prominence. iii APPROVAL PAGE The faculty listed below, appointed by the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences have examined a thesis titled “The Coterie Theatre’s Transition from Children’s Theatre to Multigenerational Theatre: 1991-2014” presented by Danielle M. Trebus, candidate for the Master of Arts degree, and certify that in their opinion it is worthy of acceptance. Supervisory Committee Felicia Hardison Londré, Ph.D., Committee Chair Department of Theatre Tom Mardikes, M.F.A. Chair, Department of Theatre Gene Friedman, Associate Professor Department of Theatre iv CONTENTS ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... iii INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 1. SEPTEMBER 1991-AUGUST 2000 ........................................................................ 5 2. SEPTEMBER 2000-AUGUST 2010 ...................................................................... 37 3. SEPTEMBER 2010-AUGUST 2014 ...................................................................... 77 Appendix A. JEFF CHURCH .................................................................................................... 104 B. PRODUCTION HISTORY 1978-2014 ................................................................ 109 REFERENCE LIST ......................................................................................................... 116 VITA ................................................................................................................................ 140 v INTRODUCTION In 1979 Judith Yeckel and Vicky Lee, two graduate students in theatre from the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC), founded The Coterie Theatre. The theatre then as now is housed on level one in Hallmark’s Crown Center shops. It had migrated between several storefront spaces there until finally settling in its permanent location in the late 1980s. The theatre, offices and classrooms now span almost four storefronts. Over the past 30 years, The Coterie has given nearly 6,861 performances of 215 productions through 2008, playing to approximately 1,500,000 people (Coterie Theatre). Artistic Director Yeckel established a mission for The Coterie that has held firm to this day: to open lines of communication between races, sexes and generations. Kansas City actor/director Jim Tibbs became Artistic Director through 1988, following Yeckel and Lee’s tenure. Jim furthered the mission of The Coterie by providing classic and contemporary theatre, which challenged both the audience and the artists. After Jim’s death, Pam Sterling then served as Artistic Director for the next two years (Coterie Theatre). In 1990, Jeff Church joined The Coterie as Producing Artistic Director. He came from The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., where he served as a director and a playwright-in-residence. Over the past 24 years, Jeff’s goal has been to transition The Coterie programming so as to make it a “multicultural” and “multigenerational” theatre, redefining it to include families and diverse audiences (Coterie Theatre). The brief history above summarizes developments prior to Jeff Church’s tenure as Artistic Director of The Coterie Theatre. It also stands as the pretext to the significance of 1 this research. As a member of the Kansas City community since 1979 and as an actress, director, playwright and lover of children’s theatre, I have witnessed the founding and growth of The Coterie. I auditioned for and attended productions there during the Yeckel and Lee years. My own children became my audience partners in the 1980-90s. Under the leadership of Jeff Church, I continued to watch the theatre grow and change. It was during this time that I came to admire the new trail he blazed within the genre of “children’s theatre.” By 1990 I had moved to a job teaching university theatre at what was then Saint Mary College, my alma mater. The Director of Theatre there was a former adjunct faculty member during my undergraduate days, Van Ibsen. He too loved children’s theatre and after college I joined his touring company, Fundamental Theatre, which featured adults performing for children. We were a good team, each complementing the other’s skills and our season at Saint Mary included a family Christmas production and eventually included a spring tour of a children’s play. But what we were producing as “children’s theatre” was very different from the “children’s theatre” of Jeff Church. We were producing popular adaptations of well-known fairy tales and children’s stories. Church was pushing the boundaries of this norm by maturing the idea of “programming” for children. I was intrigued with how his programming of plays at The Coterie was aiding this idea and his mission of providing “multicultural” and “multigenerational” theatre. Church’s career with The Coterie is marked by many of the experiences that crowded his early life and the beginning of his professional career. He has managed to integrate acting, playwriting as well as technical and stage direction under the title of “artistic director” and to use them to mature “children’s theatre” into “theatre for young 2 audiences” and now “multigenerational theatre.” All of this Church has accomplished with a vision and a promise to change the way theatre for children was perceived. The result of this is that The Coterie Theatre is nationally recognized as an innovator in this programming. Jeff Church is similarly recognized as a driving force in this innovation. This contribution to theatre history deserves to be acknowledged and thus is the goal of this thesis. To this end, one essential question arose: can Church’s vision be charted in The Coterie Theatre’s programming since his tenure as artistic director in 1990? The following chapters will chart in detail the theatre’s changes in programming. This in-depth analysis of Church’s programming spans seasons 1991-2014 as 1991 was Jeff Church’s first season of programming for The Coterie and 2014 is the present season. I have chosen to use the programming listed on The Coterie website under the titles “World Premiere,” “Commissioned World Premiere,” and “American Premiere” (Coterie Theatre). These particular plays seemed to demonstrate a decidedly different emphasis in the theatre’s programming since its beginning in 1979. It was discovered during the first weeks of research that the topic, The Coterie Theatre, had no previous history in children’s theatre books. There existed an extensive compilation of online information and periodical articles about The Coterie Theatre but neither its history nor any critical review of its programming was in evidence. Therefore, this thesis breaks new ground with this research and is one, which will critically examine the theatre’s programming in light of the essential question. The following is a discussion of the research materials. It includes the identification of materials, the dates of research and the authority of these sources as well as their objectivity and results. 3 The literature researched for this thesis is identified as primarily original source materials most of which are periodicals published locally in the Greater Kansas City Metropolitan area, with some published nationally, either in print or online. The primary source is The Kansas City Star. Whether local or national, the materials vary in type from newspaper and magazine articles, reviews, commentaries and informational pieces to press releases, websites, a master’s thesis, personal interviews and e-mail. The authors and publishers of these source materials are prominent and well recognized names in the newspaper and magazine industry as well as the fields of theatre, theatre criticism and in particular the genre of theatre for children and young adults. The bibliography is extensive and spans twenty-three years (1991-2014) of The Coterie Theatre’s life. These publishers and authors contributed work over this time which demonstrates their respected positions both as authorities and accurate historians of trends in the field. With regard to the objectivity of the publishers and authors, including myself, it is offered that appreciation of art of any